Star Gate

Chapter 253: An Honest and Simple Little Li Hao (I)

The liver and lungs corresponded to the wood and metal elements. They were strengthened the least at roughly three hundred cubes each. Just his five organs alone had consumed approximately eighteen hundred cubes of mysterious power. He’d also absorbed some wind, thunder, and unattributed power. The combined total was more than two thousand—it was a stunning number!

Although this wasn’t a difficult amount for the three great organizations or Night Watchers to produce, it was almost impossible for one person alone to consume it all.

Granted, the factions likely wouldn’t dissent if the person in question guaranteed a swift progression to Dominator. No one would object to creating a Dominator from two thousand cubes of mysterious power.

I am unable to maintain the elemental balance as fire energy is still the strongest in my body... There was no helping it as he’d truly met more fire supernaturals than the rest. The Solar Qiao Feilong and his Sunflare subordinates had all been fire attributed. Even Hao Lianchuan and Sun Yifei were of fire.

“Chief.” Li Hao opened his eyes and looked at Liu Long. “How much metal and wood energy are in the two hundred cubes that Yama gave you?”

Li Hao had returned the energy to Liu Long after the man returned. The Revolution King was an interesting fellow to give them three elements while wholly missing out on fire and water.

“Roughly one hundred cubes of metal.” Liu Long had glanced briefly at his bounty before, but was only able to give an overall estimation. “Sixty of earth and less of wood at roughly forty cubes.”

Metal energy amounted to the most as the Revolution King might have happened upon the corpse of a metal supernatural.

“Lend me two hundred cubes, chief. I’ll return them to you later on...”

Liu Long didn’t need to balance his five organs for the time being, he was still nurturing his kidneys. Therefore, Li Hao hoped to borrow his mysterious power first, particularly the cubes of metal energy. His metal and earth elements were out of alignment, representing that his sword and earth auras weren’t balanced either.

If he could obtain one hundred cubes of metal energy, that would mean he’d absorbed roughly four hundred cubes of both elements. That would just barely reach a state of equilibrium between his elements.

Li Hao was different from Yuan Shuo in that the professor’s five auras were evenly matched, so there was no issue if he strengthened one organ or all five at the same time. Li Hao, however, needed to develop two auras in conjunction.

Liu Long threw some bones to the young man without further word. Li Hao looked into the distance—the entire outer city was shrouded in darkness. He wasn’t interested in participating in those struggles anymore. His organs needed to be strengthened first.

The little sword might be fully depleted after absorbing this round of mysterious power—he’d have to slowly nurture his organs on his own or obtain some blood pearls after that. The latter provided decent effects as it fortified the entire body. While it didn’t pinpoint specific areas like the five elements did, one could swiftly digest it without the need for sword energy.

The sword at his waist sparkled with a very faint, dim hue. Li Hao started absorbing once more. He could endure more after setting foot into Dominator and digested energy more quickly than before. His capacity had grown larger after his body grew stronger.

Satiation was forthcoming when he previously absorbed mysterious power. The same wasn’t happening even after he absorbed a few dozen cubes of metal mysterious power this time.

His lungs were strengthened and the metal energy was completely consumed after half an hour. The young man started on wood energy, setting aside earth energy for now as he didn’t want to break the newfound balance. He was less than ten cubes in when...

Li Hao opened his eyes, lost and disappointed. There was no more sword energy! Although he knew that the little bit left would quickly be exhausted, it was still a forlorn feeling to suddenly run out.

His breakthrough to Dominator had much to do with sword energy. He wouldn’t have made such swift progress on the path of martial dao if not for this energy. And now, it was gone.

The stone door ruins that Yuan Shuo had found last time could replenish the sword, but they didn’t exude energy fast enough. The vast sum that the sword had absorbed previously had accumulated over a long period of time.

It’d only been a few days since they refilled the weapons of the eight families. While his teacher said that there may be eight stone doors, Yuan Shuo was yet to find a second ruin after investigating Silver City for a few days. He’d gone into closed door cultivation before continuing his explorations and now Yuan Shuo was gone entirely.

Thus, there was no effective way that Li Hao could currently employ to restore his sword.

“Ai!” Li Hao put these thoughts out of his mind after an imperceptible sigh. This was good enough! His lungs and spleen had absorbed roughly four hundred cubes each, as did his kidneys. There was a small balance between them too. A little less wood energy and a little more fire energy at this stage didn’t affect the equilibrium that much.

Should he start summoning his spirits? He needed to further develop his sword and earth auras, but would his three other organs be able to endure the strain?

Nurturing a spirit was a process that permitted the usage of the aura, but that usage easily broke the balance of elements and levied incredible stress on the five visceral organs. His teacher had absorbed nearly one thousand cubes of fire energy to successfully summon the fire heart ape. Li Hao didn’t hope for immediate success; the process of nurturing his spirits was also one that strengthened the auras.

Teacher only has a strong heart, none of his other organs are on par with mine. He still dared forcefully summon the tiger spirit under those circumstances and even forced it into manifesting. On a whole, my organs aren’t any weaker than teacher’s!

“Chief, keep an eye out for me.” He looked at Liu Long when his thoughts traveled here. “I’m going to cultivate for a bit. Unless I say something, you can ignore me even if anything unexpected happens.”

Liu Long frowned slightly, but still nodded. The young man closed his eyes again moments later, wanting to meld his earth aura into his spleen. The earth was an expansive, tolerant entity that might be easier to tackle than the sword aura.

The aura moves according to the mind!

The aura of the earth rose in his spleen in accordance with his thoughts. Yuan Shuo’s auras of the five styles manifested as the five animals. Liu Long’s Nine Forged aura of the sea took the shape of the waves. Li Hao’s aura of the earth became a mountain.

A mountain did not represent the earth, but it was what Li Hao focused on at the moment. It was a specialization of heavy earth and not the entire earth. The young man was unable to present the unbounded aura of the earth—he would have to reach higher levels for that to be possible.

A mountain entered his spleen with a boom that only his heart and ears could hear. Enormous pressure exploded in his spleen, shaking it to the point of bleeding. Color drained from Li Hao’s face! But he didn’t panic thanks to the guide of Yuan Shuo’s tutelage and experience. Such was the benefit of having a good teacher, he knew what to do under these circumstances.

He closely observed his spleen with his mind and discovered something new. A tremendous peak rammed itself against a lock in the internal world of the spleen—the supernatural lock!

He needed to subdue the earth aura, but just as his teacher had encountered when pacifying the fire heart ape, Yuan Shuo’s heart hadn’t been strong enough to bring the ape to heel. The professor had to utilize his supernatural locks to help him suppress the fire heart ape and lock it away.

This was what Li Hao planned to do now—utilize the might of his supernatural locks to immobilize the mountain. The prerequisite to that was his supernatural locks needed to be stronger than his aura!

If the lock proved weaker than the aura and broke to the mountain, then Li Hao would either die or ascend to the supernatural. It used to be that martial masters craved making the crossover, but Li Hao wasn’t willing to anymore. It was not his path even though he’d be stronger after rising to the supernatural world.

Clatter!

The faint sound of chains echoed in his ears. A sturdy and durable chain snaked toward the mountain. While the landmass wasn’t as hot-headed or resisted as violently as the fire heart ape, it still shook without pause!

Each oscillation was exceedingly unbearable and accumulated as blood seeping out the corners of Li Hao’s mouth. His other four organs were shaking as well. No wonder his teacher said that the other organs needed to be strong as well—otherwise, the remaining four might shatter at any time.

His teacher had taken a week to subdue the fire heart ape. He did so for a different purpose; Li Hao was simply temporarily locking his aura away so he could nurture it. His teacher was ready to physically manifest his auras at any time. Not to mention, that had been his teacher’s first attempt. He spent most of his time strengthening the heart. Meanwhile, strengthening his organs was part of Li Hao\'s daily routine. This was his final step in that stage—locking the aura in place!

......

Liu Long watched the young man silently, understanding certain things. As a Dominator, he knew what Li Hao was attempting—a summoning of the spirit! To think that the young man would start summoning his spirits as soon as he reached Dominator!

The team captain thought back to Yuan Shuo’s words and how the professor had told him to strengthen his five visceral organs, particularly his kidneys. Li Hao looked to be strong enough already, so that little bastard was lying when he said he suffered internal damage earlier. The kid was awful!

Liu Long put those thoughts out of his mind and silently watched the proceedings. Observation was a type of cultivation. In asking him to stand guard, it meant that Li Hao didn’t intend to keep any part of the process a secret.

“Summoner of Spirit means for the aura to enter the five organs. I can vaguely hear the sound of chains and the fire heart ape was wrapped by chains...”

Chains...

Supernatural locks!

“So the supernatural locks keep the aura in the organs? Does this mean that the earth aura is erupting and entering the spleen right now?” Liu Long took a close look. Indeed, Li Hao’s spleen was bleeding, some of which had oozed outside. How strong were the young man’s organs?

Liu Long didn’t know, but he knew that they had to be much stronger than his. Yet, judging from Li Hao’s pale face, even he couldn’t withstand the process. He was having a difficult time subduing his earth aura.

“Therefore... my organs probably won’t be able to endure it either!” Liu Long furrowed his brows, this would be difficult. It looked like a long span of time was needed to nurture the five organs.

“Should he use a blood pearl to strengthen them overall?” He looked at Li Hao and quickly shook his head. The young man hadn’t enhanced his organs to their limits.

Liu Long speculated that the young man could so quickly fortify his organs thanks to the sword in his hand. But he’d stopped soon after switching to wood energy; he’d reached a bottleneck. It looked like the aid offered by the sword was no more. Otherwise, Li Hao would only need to repeat his actions from their sparring sessions and absorb that energy for swift recovery. And yet, the young man did not.